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Updated: September 8, 2009, 4:47 pm	Share    Print    Email

Historian Henry Moeller Moeller points out East and West Landing in the Great Peconic Bay, where vessels used to beach. Divers can still find wreakage from the ships that ran aground in the past. Photos by Aaron Boyd

Hampton Bays - For the third consecutive August, the Hampton Bays Historical Society held their Historic Maritime Cruise, a three-hour tour of Shinnecock Bay, the Shinnecock Canal and the Great Peconic Bay on the other side. Former Southampton Town Historian Henry Moeller and ad-hoc professor and Ph.D. candidate Tara Rider, along with Captain Don Getz, who volunteers his time as captain of SUNY Stonybrook Southampton's research vessel Paumanok, have created a friendly, laid-back lesson in how the economic and geographic factors of the area shaped the hamlet we see today.

The cruise participants set off on the Paumanok for the informative tour.

The tour left from the campus docks on Little Neck Road, on the east side of Shinnecock Bay. Getz killed the engines at the mouth of the small harbor while Moeller laid out topographical maps explaining the difference between the two kinds of bays - Shinnecock Bay is of the variety created by a sand bar running along the southern coastline. "The bar is constantly moving," Moeller explained, and as sea levels rise, the sand bar is going to continue moving northward, shrinking the bay. "That whole system is moving," Moeller continued, "And if you have real estate there, it's moving, too," he noted, pointing to the seamless line of mansions ringing the bay.

Not only is the geography of the area changing, but the environment, as well. "The whole vegetation picture for the East End has changed in one generation," Moeller asserted, explaining how the original settlers and generations afterward struggled to find fuel, as lumber was in short supply. Now, trees abound, creeping right up to the shoreline, where the marshes and beach grass that used to canvas the coast continue to shrink and recede.

The story of Long Island's shores is a story of constant change, according to Rider, who is working toward her Ph.D. in maritime history. Sometime approximately 11,000 years ago there was a third fork extending off of the south shore, near modern Amagansett, though it eroded and disappeared just before humans are expected to have arrived.

Ph.D. candidate Tara Rider discussing the South Fork's whaling history and its effect on the entire community.

As the vessel motored its way through the canal locks, the water draining out to lower us into the Great Peconic Bay, Moeller and Rider switched from geography and ecology to history, specifically that of the whaling industry that supported the East End through the 17th to 19th centuries. "When a whale was seen, everyone came running, no matter their occupation," Moeller claimed, as the endeavor was seen as a community effort and the profits made off a single whale could pay off the purchase of a farm. Everyone was involved, everyone was a whaler.

"It was really a community effort," Rider agreed as she explained the difference between trying to catch a right whale, which will float after it is killed, and larger hefty whales that would have to be dragged through the water after being caught, sometimes miles off-shore. Whaling on the South Fork maintained much of its community character through the decades, as professional deep-sea whalers set off from deep-sea ports like Sag Harbor and Montauk, whereas whaling out of Shinnecock Bay was kept closer to the shoreline. Watchers would sit atop poles strewn along the coastline waiting for a pod to swim by, whereupon they would alert the locals and a crew would set off in pursuit.

Some 30 voyagers joined the historical society for their fourth historic cruise, enjoying an educational ride through the canal and relaxing with some wine and cheese while drifting in the northern bay.

It wasn't long before the powers-that-be realized the importance of the waterways surrounding the South Fork, Rider explained, and the Dongan Patent was signed in 1686 to ensure that the locals' rights to the water were never infringed upon. Today, "We see them licensing the rights to the water," Rider asserted, referring to shellfish permits, fishing regulations and a new saltwater fishing license set to go into effect later this year.

The tour ended with a relaxing reception in the Great Peconic Bay, enjoying cheese and wine as the sun set over the distant landscape. This was the third year and fourth trip the Historical Society has taken and the response has been incredible, according to Barbara Moeller, president of the Hampton Bays Historical Society. "People have come back for two and three trips," Moeller claimed, and reservations for the 30 available slots on the boat have consistently filled up quickly. While there are no more voyages planned for this year, the Historic Maritime Cruise is certainly one to keep in mind for next summer.

The sun sets over the bays: Divers can still find wreckage from the ships that ran aground in the past.